the crooked little chicken house

“living in Maine, cold is definately an issue for the chickens. I've had a 250 watt light on 24/7 for a month or so now. Still, the tips of the combs are turning black and will fall off later. The comb is used to regulate body temperature - if you have chickens that don't get along, you'll see the first thing they go for is the comb and try to peck it off. I disagree that chickens are good to 20 below, plus your eggs will freeze.”

“Ok I'd listen to The eater”

“Of twigs, he's legit. Thank God it doesn't get that cold here...... How do you keep their water thawed, twigeater?”

“Good gravy, I guess I'm outright babying my babies, hehe. The last 2 winters, the absolute coldest it's been here was a couple of nights where it hit 10 degress F. One of those it was supposed to be 8, but I didn't see that. Strat just so you know, if you have open water dishes, and a chicken stupidly sleeps with it's feet in the water, they'll stay all night and freeze right up in it. I've had 2 do that, one died and one limped and hobbled around for a few days and then turned out OK. I have not done the light thing yet, that's more for egg-laying than for providing heat. And instead of using a heater for your water, I prefer to just keep a couple of gallon milk jugs on the back porch and take a gallon of hot water to pour over their icy chicken water. It mixes pretty quickly and works very well. On our coldest sets of days, I might do that in the morning and in the evening when I put them up (but then I pour out the water when I close them up at night so nobody freezes in the water dish).

But minus 20, no way, you'd need to do something before that. At 10 degrees I had some lose the edges of their combs.”

“There is the White Chanteclerc chicken that was bred by a Brother Wilfrid at the Trappist Monstery in Oka, Québec in the early 1900's. Actually it is the progeny of older comb-less breeds developed to survive the winters of Canada since colonial times. It is a dual purpose chicken and winter hardy.

I knew a breeder in my region, but he is long gone. You can get beta from www.cherryrivercanadians.ca. They ship only eggs and are sold out for 2 011.

I hope this is interesting and helpful.

Doug”

“Dang Ape, chickens is so stupid....Some of my birds have what they call "rose combs". I wonder if that trait was bred with freezing combs in mind....hmm”

“I truck out hot water twice a day. The first year I had them all snugged up in the coop. Second year, not so snug. This year I haven't snugged up the coop yet, but I have to because the coop of choice has big gaps between the boards. It's also still freakin' 45 degrees here.”

“For awhile, I had a South American rooster with a quite different comb. Got him off a rancher whose birds ran loose. Whenever I needed a rooster, I would go by his place and ask, the kids would catch one for me. A little bigger than a banty, wild little guy. I had to clip his wing, even being with the hens couldn't keep him in the pen. If I had to catch him and put him back in the pen, talk about screaming bloody murder when you had ahold of him.:)
Duane”

“I have 3 or 4 roosters left since farmer came to get the turkeys and some of the roosters.

One rooster has started attacking me, which is new and different. Funny though, after I bully him away, one of the other roosters chases him off.”

“My 4 adult guineas decided to sleep up in the hemlock again last night. Let's see how long they last without taking a hit, perhaps I can wrap some barbwire up the trunk, that might deter coons, but I doubt it.

LOL duane, screaming rooster, when I grab ahold of Brad Pitt for any reason he too screams bloody murder.”

“looks like we may have lost an indian running duck - didn't find a body yet though.

Duck eggs do taste different, and have a different texture. The whites are richer, thicker.”

“and as far as the cold goes - it's only gone down to the teens, so there are still some birds that roost outside.”

“We got 13 eggs today, a new record. Chased another hawk off today. This time a red tail instead of the usual red shoulder I've been seeing. And I had some help from about 19 crows that were giving him hell.”

“Ye if I hear crows a hollerin' I know to be on the lookout. I'm only getting about 1 egg a day. But I have not yet strung up a long line out to the coop for a light.

How are duck eggs different if you cook'em up for breakfast?”

“How's yer eyeball doin Apedude?”

“We are down to 2-3 eggs per day now. Not a bad output for 2 hens. I don't know if Birch shared, the damn dogs kilt 6 birds a few weeks back. We'll get more poults come spring. Really love the breeds we have...gonna look for 2 more of each.”

“Dang Sass, bad dog. Remindme again what breeds you have/had”

“A shepherd husky mix and a dachshund cockapoo mix. It was a joint effort. The shepherd opened the gate tho. Funny thing is they never showed much interest in them. I guess they were waiting patiently.”

“Lmao. I have 2 Shepards and a dachshund also! My lg Mmake Shepard (Deisel)has his own chicken, a silky bantam hen, that he follows around in the woods. we named her Deisel's Chicken.
But I meant what breed of chickens....”

“I noticed the difference in the taste of ducks eggs when I eat them boiled. A little nutty, I guess. there might not be a whole lot of difference in taste, but no one would eat my deviled eggs made from turkey eggs, LOL...next time I deviled eggs, I assured them they were chicken eggs!

If I buy chicks from the store, we have to buy in lots of six per breed.”

“Twig, do you have to have a pond or something for them to swim in?”

“Sorry Strat, lol. We have a RI White and an Isa Red.”

“14 eggs today! A NEW WORLD RECORD! well, my world anyway...
My water was frozen over good so I broke it with a rock and my sone later poured in some hot water to thaw it a little. I stopped at the cool and looked at water heaters and the were nice but expensive. Im thinking about using a submersible aquarium heater that I have...
Cool Sass, I'm gonna look those up...”

“Careful with the aquarium heaters, they can crack if not kept completely submerged.”

“If I special ordered birds from the feed store, then I had to get "X" number of birds. Always just found out the date the chicks were due in and went down on my lunch to make sure I got what I wanted. I usually told them ahead of time that I wanted "X" number of some chicks though so they could order enough for other customers.
Duane”

“the ducks have a plastic swimming pool in the summer.”

“RI Whites are fairly rare I guess. Very hearty bird, makes eggs like crazy and can be used for meat too. We just are fortunate enough to have an urban farm in town where the guy sells birds and coops off of Craigslist.”

“Perhaps a heated bird bath? Draw little power.”

“Sass, do you have a fixed coop or a tractor coop”

“You can keep water thawed using light bulbs.”

“You can keep water thawed using light bulbs.”

“New plan, I read an air bubbled will work, I have a bunch of aquarium gear so I'm gonna try that to keep the water thawed. But I have my doubts.”

“I've got a redneck buddy( he wears the title proudly) from work and his refrigerator is broken so I'm on my way to his place in a bit to fix it. Well he happens to be a chicken farmer on about the same scale as I, 30-40 birds and he lives way out in the boonies. Turns out that once a month they have a chicken swap at "the store" , which is just a gas station/convienance store/diner out there. As my lovely bride, Buffalobabe, is concerned about the number if roosters we have crowing all day and disturbing the neighbors, I will be taking 5 Roos out there to see is I can swap them for some hens. I'll be taking 3 aroconas, a RI Red, and a Banty(Silky w/5 toes), leaving me with only 2 roosters . I've already given away about 12 roosters. This one's cull is the toughest one because all the ones I have left are really attractive and it's not easy choosing only 2 to keep. I really don't have anything specific in mind for what kind of hens I get, but I hope to get something new that I don't already have. Some solid black ones would be sweet. Sometimes they'll just offer you 5 or 10 bucks instead of a swap so we'll see what happens. It should be interesting. I'm told by my chicken sith(the guy I got all me birds from) that mine are very good specimens of sought after breeds in these parts. He attributes my flock's great condition to the fact that they are freerangers, something that he can't do because he segregates all his different breeds he raises. In a word, he's jealous....heh heh

BAWK BAWK!!!”

“Ewker it's fixed.”

“Well that was a whole lot of nothing. I guess it was too cold, nobody showed up to the chicken swap. My buddy gave me a couple hens ad I took the roosters to my chicken man. I'm finally down to only 2 roosters and it's much quieter here today”

“Tractor Supply has chicken swaps in the summer, it's fun. Course that's how I now have a rabbit and 12 freakin' cats, but still fun, LOL...

Roosters are generally hard to even give away, you do well with that. I do have a farmer that will take them, along with my hens that no longer lay or any other bird I don't want, but I don't know what he does with them.”

“except that 12 cats = no more parakeets and no more feeding the wild birds. :(”

“Lolz”

“Whoa! 18 friggn eggs tonight.. Another world record.

I've been reading a lot about homemade incubators an today I found a small fridge at work that no longer works so I brought it home and this is gonna be my incubator for the spring. Anybody else ever hatch their own chicks before?”

“On the farm back around '70, I hatched some domestic quail eggs. Kinda tough when you shut the generator off at night, but managed to hatch out about 6.

Duane”

“"Chicken swaps", and I thawt I was in hillbilly heaven!

We've had fun hatching out aigs Strat. Got one of the top house variety hatchers, cain't remember the name at the moment, offa ebay. The Floridiots that we bought the house from has us a real nice garden tub with jets all around ... makes an awesome chick brooder in the spring, hehe.

I need to send you some spring water to help get that broke fridge operational, eh?

18 eggs! We're getting about an egg a day now, but I've not got up any lights, so that's what I deserve. I'm afraid to run the cost analysis on our egg a day .... prolly a dang dollar each! Sheesh, guess I'll hurry my getting around to putting up a light.”

“birch was feeling bad that our hens never get any night. I'm thinking they're appreciative of that 100 watt bulb these days (and nights). Even if the varieties we have are rated to 0°, I bet they're happier at 40°!”

“Sounds good N-Ape!”

“Hmmm woke up this mornin and none of my birds will com out of the pen. Me thinks that hawk's been luring about....”

“the other day when I went out to feed up, a chicken flew in to my head - I thought it just misjudged...yesterday it happened again. I now believe the girls are ganging up on me cause they get ticked off when I take "their" eggs (I often remind them that in exchange for grain, the eggs are mine)

I'm feeling like Tipi Hedron in "The Birds"
LOL...”

“Oh lordy, my brother went and ordered a bunch of chicks. Just out of the blue.”

“what breed?
last edited: 1/27/12 10:14:49 AM”

“I have no idea. All of my information is through my mom, and all she said is that she told him any red ones have to be named after her mom (I kid you not) and the nicest one has to be named after her. Yeah, right. I'll probably call him this weekend and ask him. He now lives outside of North Myrtle Beach, SC.”

“... chicks man........”

“COL(clucking out loud)!”